New color boxes

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Dorothy Mahler said: Please know that FamilySearch is an amazing system that I really enjoy using. It's certainly easiest family-history program that I've ever had contact with. I really appreciate how easy it has been to navigate.

However, the recent change that shows previously-reserved names with a green color box, rather than the yellow box as before, is confusing because it is now the same color as someone who still needs to have their ordinances ordered and their work done. It's disappointing to open a person's ordinance list just to find that someone else has already reserved it, especially since it seems to be a bit slower since these changes have been made.

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Eric J. said: Agreed, please change

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Gordon Collett said: But the whole point is, that if you want to take care of the ordinance, you can just reserve it and complete it. If the ordinance is not available to you to do, the icon is blue, not green.

I think this whole change has a lot to due with the fact that we are suppose to reserve ordinances in order to get them done right away, not hide them away on a reservation list. This change basically reinforces that we are not to wander through Family Tree looking for green icons. We are to work on adding newly found relatives then do their ordinances right away or share them with the temple so other relatives can can to them. This will really be the case when the limitation on the number of names one can keep on a personal reservation list starts being enforced.

And for when we can't find a name to take to the temple, there is still Ordinances Ready to find them for us.

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Eric J. said: That change is great yes, but leave green as is, and find a new color, any color. THEN people know, oh green, that needs some work, or color whatever, someone's submitted that, but I can go take it from them and get it done myself...very simple, eliminates any confusion, keeps the new functionality which I agree is awesome.

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JimGreene said: Thank you all for your comments. The change has been made because of a new feature.  The new feature allows any ordinance that has been shared with the temple to show up as green or available to request. You no longer have to email someone who shared it with the temple to go and Un-share it so you can have it. As long as the temples have not printed it, it is available for anyone to request. They can have it for 90-days, at which point if it is not completed it goes back to the temple list and green status.  If you have reserved an ordinance it will change from green to blue and depending on where you reserved it from you can have it for 2 years (reserved from the tree and not from the temple), or 90 days (reserved from the temple shared list or from Ordinances Ready). If you don't do anything in those applicable time frames then it will change back from blue to green. There are only 4 states for an ordinance now and only four colors. We are being asked by patrons and by our leaders to simplify, and this is in response to that. It may require you to simplify what you are doing too, but in no time you will not even remember the more complex old way.

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W David Samuelsen said: Jim, in my case, almost ZERO relatives to take family names so far. German, Hungarian and now Romanian.

That other feature, under "General" in Message section.
There was a feature, where I am encouraged to share names with anyone who happens to be relative. This is not acceptable because there was NO way to contact that relative to consider taking the names. Essentially "being forced to take".
very unacceptable method.

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JimGreene said: David, sharing with the temple does not preclude those who are not related from taking the names and performing the ordinances. But a family member who is walking the tree will see a green temple icon and will be able to grab it. I am not sure what you mean by we were forcing a relative to take a name? Forcing would be unacceptable, I agree. Can you help me understand what you mean. In the feature where we ask you to share with a relative we only present you relatives who we have contacted and who agree to do this for you or any other relative.

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Eric J. said: The concept is wonderful yes, just make it a different color, how/why is that such an issue? Adding 1 color HELPS to "simplify"

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D. Llewelyn said: agreed

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D. Llewelyn said: agreed.

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D. Llewelyn said: The old color boxes made more sense and were simple to understand. The new (same color blue boxes) don't really simplify things if it's not immediately clear whether an ordinance is available, reserved or shared. The recent update for merging is great.

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Tom Huber said: I find the four colors make eminent sense -- after all, we are concerned only about the reservations we make for our ancestral lines and related spouses of our relatives.

Green for request,
Blue for In Progress.

Gray for completed and
Yellow/amber for Not available (Cannot Request).

In addition, we can display either My Reservations or Shared.

If I want to take a name to the temple, it no longer matters if it has been shared or not. I can reserve it. I will be informed if the name is temple shared and if I continue, I have 90 days to complete the ordinances, the same as if I had used Ordinances Ready.

If the name was not been reserved, I am still reserving the name, but have two years in which to complete the ordinances.

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Tom Huber said: Note that when you have a green icon with a temple shared name, you will see the information about the reservation:

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Tom Huber said: If the person has not shared the name with the temple, the icon will be blue. Only those I can pull are shown in green.

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Cherie Ailene Morgan said: The new ordinance colors are not helpful and create MORE work for the end-user. The purpose of improvements to the software should be to make our work easier, not to complicate our work.

There are SIX different variables, for which you have now only created FOUR colors. This contradicts the whole purpose of having a color code system. Why have colors if they’ll mean more than one thing?

The six options:
Work that has not been submitted
Work that someone else has requested
Work that I have requested
Work that I have sent to the Temple, or sent to a friend or family member
Work that has been completed
Work that cannot be completed

The problem now:

Green = hasn't been submitted AND someone else has already requested - there needs to be distinction between the two

Blue = I have requested the name AND I have submitted the name to the temple - there needs to be distinction between the two

Using the same color for TWO different reasons is confusing and creates more work.

Example #1: When I see green on a person's name, I click the Ordinances tab to submit their name. Only now to find that someone else has already submitted it. So I took an extra step that I didn't have to.

This may not seem significant, but when I spend the majority of my day working on this site, extra page clicks just adds to my work load. Now I can't double check my work properly, because each I see the green I click on it to submit the name and I now have no way of knowing if I've checked it before. So the process of double checking goes on ad nauseum.

Example #2: Now when I see blue on the Ordinance tab, I don't know at a glance if I have only requested the name, or if I have already submitted the name to the temple. I can't tell at a glance if I forgot the second step. Please keep in mind that not every user is doing their own temple work. Being able to know that the names have been submitted to the temple without second guessing ourselves because of erroneous colors is crucial.

The entire reason for color coding is to show distinction between different levels of work that has been done or needs to be done. That has been erased with this new policy.

If the justification for doing this is that text has been added below the ordinances, then there is not a true purpose for having the color coding. Why use colors to clarify ordinances, if we only have to keep digging to double check the text? This doesn't make any sense and creates more work and confusion for the people for whom this site has been created - the end-user.

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Cherie Ailene Morgan said: If you are simply trying to make it so someone can request a name that has been submitted to the temple, then this is NOT the way to make that process easier. You don't make one thing easier by making two other things more difficult. That goes to the old saying of 'cut off your nose despite your face'.

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Dorothy Mahler said: I am grateful for your excellent comments and am applauding your effective clarification!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Cherie Ailene Morgan said: I see what you are saying, but your Engineers also need to understand how the end-users use the software. There are MANY of us who do the online work and do NOT do the temple ordinance work ourselves. This change is only geared for people who are doing the temple work themselves, and not for those who are doing the research and submitting the names for others to do the work. When those of us who are researchers go through the family trees and see green, that indicates that the work has not been done and we see it as an opportunity to submit it the temple. But now when we click on the ordinance tab, sometimes we find that someone else has already submitted it. But we have no way to know unless we click on that name EACH AND EVERY TIME WE COME ACROSS IT, if the work has already been submitted. There needs to be a better resolution for what you're trying to accomplish. Making it easier for some shouldn't make it harder for others. All you need to do to resolve this is make some sort of icon where a user can select a record that has already been submitted to the temple. Because right now, you have a color that means TWO things and that defeats the purpose of color coding.

And while we're at it, that doesn't explain why the work that I have requested (which used to be yellow) and the work that I have sent to the Temple, or sent to a friend or family member (which used to be red) is now the same color. Why does BLUE also mean two things? Now I can't easily tell if I've completed both steps. What if I requested the work, but forgot to submit it to the temple? Under this new change, I now have to go to the Temple tab on a regular basis and double check if I have names that are reserved but haven't been shared. Once again, this is creating more work, instead of streamlining our work.

When changes like this are considered, the Engineers need to consider ALL users, and not just a select group. There has be an resolution that works for everyone.

Please feel free to contact me, I'm more than happy to provide more feedback and suggestions. It's all about getting to the root cause of a problem and solving it to the best outcome for all.

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Eric J. said: Couldn't be more spot on

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Cherie Ailene Morgan said: Just stop... you don't understand that people use this site in more than one way and a solution has to address each and every way an end-user works.

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D. Llewelyn said: Agree with Cherie. New features are great for people wanting to grab "shared" ordinances. It's not great that we can no longer glance and see what we have reserved to take to the temple, what we have shared, and what is green (available). I'd like to still be able to see by glancing at my list what I have reserved for my family and what I have shared all in one place. The old system was much more user friendly. I wish it would have been kept the same, same colors, but let people access shared ordinances that they would like to do. The new system also seems slower.

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D. Llewelyn said: Amen. Other family members who spend time on family search/ancestry every day are equally as frustrated. Please consider splitting the blue back out to two colors - one to reserve work for ones self/family, one to share reserved work with the temple. And by all means, once it's shared, others should be able to grab and complete their work. win-win.

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Dorothy Mahler said: With all of the changes that have recently been made to the color coding system, I'm really wondering if the changes were made by brilliant people who know how to program computers, but who don't actually use FamilySearch. If they DO use FS, it serves them right to have to deal with the inefficient color-coding system that they have created, and which has become so very annoying to some of us who use FS regularly.

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JimGreene said: Folks, once again it is time to close this thread before the moderators do. We need to be kind to one another, we are all on the same team working for the same goal.

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Eric J. said: There's no way they actually use the program itself. No one on here except for a very few who either work for FS or have some tie to it actually like it. It's clear that this was not thought out all the way through and the frustrated comments prove it